Touch displays have become increasingly popular in electronic devices. Smart phones, cell phones, tablet computers, notebook computers, and computer monitors, and so forth, are increasingly equipped with displays that are configured to sense touch as a user input. The touch may be sensed in accordance with one of several different touch sensing techniques including, but not limited to, capacitive touch sensing.
Touch sensitive devices generally provide position identification of where the user touches the device. A touch may include movement, gestures, and other effects related to position detection. For example, touch sensitive devices can provide information to a computing system regarding user interaction with a graphical user interface (GUI) of a display, such as pointing to elements, reorienting or repositioning elements, editing or typing, and other GUI features. In another example, touch sensitive devices can provide information to a computing system for a user to interact with an application program, such as relating to input or manipulation of animation, photographs, pictures, slide presentations, sound, text, other audiovisual elements, and so forth.
While the touch sensitive devices provide an input mechanism that provides an appearance that the user is interacting directly with element displayed in the GUI, the input is generally limited to the x-, y-positioning of the touch. In some cases, the input sensitivity has been increased to allow for multi-touch inputs, but this is still limited to positional constraints of the surface upon which the touch is sensed. Some applications and programs may benefit from additional input modes beyond that provided strictly by the touch sensing.